The Theodore’s bar manager, Kyle Hilla, and his team enjoy experimenting with cocktails. The newly opened restaurant in NorthPark Center boasts a playful list of boozy concoctions. There’s the Redwood, a mix of house-made jam, Carpano Antica vermouth, Campari, and rye; Badlands made with lemon, Rémy Martin VSOP, Woodford Reserve, and a red wine ice ball; and the frozen Everglades made with Green Chartreuse, lime, celery, Caña Brava rum, and ginger pop rocks.

The team is also playing with off-the-menu elixirs.

“It’s kind of nice working this close to a Williams-Sonoma,” Hilla says as he pulls out a newly purchased French press. The gadget that is traditionally used to make coffee has been transformed into a cocktail-infusing tool.

Bartender Mario Hernandez has created an off-the-menu French press cocktail called the Hot Teddy. The drink is a warming blend of seasonal fruits, spices, and spirits.

Blood orange, lemon, honeycomb, vanilla, cinnamon, and chervil are placed in the bottom of the device, and a herbaceous mix of Rémy Martin VSOP, Cynar, Grand Poppy, Bénédictine and Hot Water is poured on top. “[It’s] a bitter and seasonal Hot Toddy that could be shared by a couple of people,” Hernandez explains.

The bar is also featuring a rotating selection of Porthole-infused cocktails. Bartender Justin Payne recently dreamed up a winter warmer called Dig My Fig. The drink comes served in a Porthole and is a seasonal blend of Knob Creek rye, Rémy Martin VSOP, Cherry Heering, Carpano Antica vermouth, Allspice Dram, and Peychaud’s bitters. The cocktail is infused with figs, cranberries, and ginger.

“I wanted to take the spices and smells that I associate with winter and Christmas and make a boozy cocktail that our guest could share during this crazy time of year,” Payne explains. The cocktail costs $30 and is meant to be shared.

A spin on the classic Blood & Sand, this cocktail created by bartender Christian Hall combines St. George’s Breaking & Entering bourbon, blood orange liqueur, cherry Heering, orange juice and Angostura bitters and is garnished with an orange peel and brandied cherry.

Remember the Maine

Originating from one of the great classic cocktail books – Remember the Maine – is even more elating than the moment in American history it commemorates. Named in remembrance of the 1898 sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor, which sparked the Spanish-American War, this classically inspired drink combines Bulleit rye whiskey, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, cherry Heering and absinthe served with a brandied cherry garnish.

Mixology is about the craft, and sometimes even the sheer science, behind the ingredients, the presentation, and above all, taste of a great beverage. In Chicago, it’s not hard to find restaurants and bars that prize cocktails mixed to please their patron’s palates.

At Sepia (http://www.sepiachicago.com/) in the Loop, head bartender Josh Pearson is responsible for the creation and constant evolution of the restaurant’s cocktail program, which emphasizes the classics while still instilling seasonal notes and international influences. Pearson thinks that drinking in a great bar should be fun (which we whole-heartedly agree with). A couple of the restaurant’s current offerings demonstrate this playful nature:

It’s always a sultry night in La Descarga no matter what the thermostat says outside of the Hollywood rum bar. And yet, the Cuban-themed venue has debuted a new fall cocktail menu this week. Unlike usual seasonal cocktail menus at other cocktail bars, this one doesn’t really pay any mind to which ingredients are in season at the farmers market. Rather, inspired by classics, tropical concoctions and the LD bartenders’ boozy dreams, this new menu features an array of delicious drinks that will transport you to more tropical climes. And what makes this LD menu different from all others in the past? LD’s GM Steve Livigni said, “The biggest change on the menu is probably the fact that all of the new drinks were developed by the staff here at LD, not Pablo and I, under the guidance of head bartender Kenny Arbuckle. Kenny did most of the drinks but Meghan Malloy and Armando Conway contributed as well.”

Another favorite, even a play off the classic Blood & Sand but Scotch is replaced with Cachaca for a sweeter, quaffable cocktail. Even LD’s GM and mixologist Steve Livigni counts this among his faves.

By Nathan
A friend of mine sent me this recipe for a cocktail called Remember the Maine. The linked article gives some background, so I suggest clicking through, but here’s the recipe:
Remember the Maine
1 1/2 oz. rye whiskey (Reitz uses Bulleit Rye)
3/4 oz. Carpano Antica Formula sweet vermouth
1/4 oz. Cherry Heering
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Stir over ice, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass that has been “rinsed” in absinthe.
It sounded fantastic, but the problem was that I’ve never had any Carpano Antica nor any Cherry Heering handy with which to make it. So after doing some quick research into these ingredients, I came up with some more common-place replacements that I figured would do the trick. While the end result is a quite different drink, I must say that it’s quite tasty. Here it is:
1 1/2 oz. rye
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth (a very common brand in my case)
1/4 oz. creme de cassis (a not-too-sweet variety, mine comes from a small winemaker in Burgundy)
1/4–1/2 tsp. Fernet Branca
1/4–1/2 tsp. orange liqueur (I used a homemade version, again, not too sweet, but Grand Marnier might be nice here)
2 dashes Angostura bitters
The Fernet Branca and orange liqueur are meant to beef up the profile of the every-day sweet vermouth to bring it closer to the alleged complexity of Carpano Antica, while the creme de cassis stands in for the Cherry Heering. The rest of the preparation (stirred over ice, absinthe) is the same.
I’ll be keeping my eye out for Carpano Antica and Cherry Heering for sure, but in the mean time, this variation is doing just fine.